Читать книгу World History For Dummies - Peter Haugen - Страница 85

Romans lived in a stratified society organized by class (see the nearby “Roman class” sidebar for more). Opportunities and employment were strictly defined by birth, just as they were in many other cultures dominated by privileged aristocrats. Yet Roman custom also offered ways for non-citizens to improve their status or that of their children.

Rome allowed foreigners and slaves to become citizens. This opportunity was highly limited when compared to today’s standards but progressive for its time. Giving the Roman Empire’s lowborn and conquered people a chance at inclusion in society helped win those people’s loyalty to Rome, which added greatly to Rome’s growth and resilience.

Democratic Athens offered no such opportunities for outsiders. (See more about Athens in chapters 4 and 11.) In a Greek city-state, a slave could be granted freedom, but the best he could hope for was lowly resident-alien status; he was unlikely to develop loyalty to a state that excluded him. (And I do mean him. Women couldn’t even dream of citizenship.)

Why so exclusive? Greeks valued Greekness, looking down on those who didn’t speak their language and worship their gods. But the exclusion was also economic. The city-states of rocky Greece were usually short of resources, especially good farmland. Granting citizenship meant increasing the number of people who had a direct claim on the food supply. Making slaves citizens was expensive and would have meant increasing the number of voters, which may have caused unwanted power shifts.

In fertile Italy, on the other hand, food was relatively abundant, so shares weren’t such an issue. Also, blocks of votes rather than individual votes determined Roman elections, so an extra vote in a block had little potential impact.

Rome offered slaves the real possibility of earning citizenship, but only in the lowest class of citizenship: plebeian. Plebeians, however, could hope for their children to rise to a higher class. Further, Rome united other cities in its empire by bringing conquered people into the fold. Roman officers propped up local aristocrats in newly taken provinces, making them dependent on Rome’s support. The defeated country’s men were enlisted in the next conflict and rewarded with part of the profits from the almost-inevitable conquest. Loyalty was lucrative.